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If you know the IP address of a script on a web server scraping the content, it can also be blocked with
the following
.htaccess
directives:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_HOST} ^xxx\.xxx\.xxx\.xxx$
RewriteRule .? - [F]
On Buying Links
As a result of the new focus on link-building to acquire relevant links, instead of the historical focus on
on-page factors (discussed in Chapter 2), an entire industry of link-buying sprung up. This is expected,
because it is a natural reaction by the search engine marketing industry to facilitate their jobs. It is Matt
Cutts’ (of Google) opinion that purchased links should include a
rel=”nofollow”
attribute. However,
in practice this has proven to be Matt Cutts’ wishful thinking, because this policy has never been widely
adopted for obvious reasons.
We consider buying links completely ethical, so long as the links are semantically related. Realistically, a
content provider can reject placing your link on their site if it is not relevant, and if they consider it as rel-
evant, there is no reason to include the
rel=”nofollow”
attribute. Therefore, in our opinion Matt Cutts’
argument doesn’t approximate an analogy of traditional marketing. Therefore, buying links, when done
properly, is not a black hat technique. When done aggressively and improperly, it may, however, be per-
ceived as spamming by a search engine.
Digital Point Co-op, Link Vault
Both Digital Point Co-op (
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/ad-network/
) and Link Vault
(
http://www.link-vault.com
) are advertising networks that operate on the premise that they are
promoting sites on other semantically related sites. In reality, however, their real purpose is questioned
by many. We will form no clear conclusion here, but using such techniques may be against the guide-
lines of search engines and can result in penalties when used in excess.
Link Vault is probably safe when used in small doses, but the other networks like Digital Point Co-op,
which advertise their existence with an invisible one-pixel image in the ad copy (for tracking), are extremely
dangerous in our opinion. And though it hasn’t provably gotten anyone into major trouble yet, it may in
the future. If we can write a regular expression with ease that detects Digital Point links, can anyone rea-
sonably conclude that Google cannot detect it? Google can clearly proceed to at least
devalue
those links.
Summary
This chapter summarizes the black hat techniques that are requisite background material for every search
engine marketer. We do not advocate the use of any of these techniques. Understanding them, however,
may provide insight as to how a competitor is ranking. It may also serve as an education, in that it will
prevent the inadvertent use of such questionable tactics in the future. Lastly, it prevents you from being
the victim of certain black hat techniques that can be detrimental to your web site.
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Chapter 8: Black Hat SEO
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